The invention concerns a clamping element free-wheel with an inner ring and an outer ring, with basically bone-shaped clamping elements arranged between the rings that have a outer radial thickening, a central waist and an inner radial thickening, and with a cage ring arranged on the height of the inner radial thickening of the clamping elements which guides the same in a synchronous manner and consists of two cage ring segments that have an axial distance to each other and axial webs that connect the cage ring segments between which pockets for the clamping elements are formed.
A free-wheel of this sort with one single cage ring is known from U.S. Pat. No. 2,753,027. Free-wheels with double cages that are provided with a cage ring of the mentioned sort as inner cage ring are described in DE-A-27 58 841 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,998,605. In the double cage variation according to FIG. 5 in U.S. Pat. No. 4,998,605, the flexible tongues that impinge on the clamping elements are molded onto the webs of the inner cage ring which consists of plastic. The flexible tongues can be easily damaged when a rebound of the clamping element ("popping") caused by an overload occurs. The earlier inventions do not counter the rebounding of clamping elements between the cage rings resulting in jamming ("pop-out"), which is also caused by an overload. In DE-A-27 58 841 and the variation according to FIG. 6 in U.S. Pat. No. 4,998,605, the webs of the inner cage ring have a radial thickness which is too minute to provide an effective pop-out protection.
The invention is based on the objective of creating a clamping element free-wheel of the initially mentioned kind that provides increased protection against a rebound of the clamping elements ("popping") caused by an overload and a possible jamming ("pop-out") of rebounding ("popping") clamping elements caused by an overload.